In the manufacture of rolled web products, such as bath tissue or paper towels, a winder winds a web of material to form a large parent roll. The parent roll is then subsequently unwound, subjected to a variety of conversions, such as embossing, and then rewound by a rewinder into a consumer diameter sized convolutely wound log. The convolutely wound log is eventually cut into consumer width sized rolls, such as bath tissue, paper towels and similar finished products. To efficiently process the convolutely wound log through converting processes, cutting and packaging, the loose end of the log (i.e., the tail) is often secured or sealed to the body (i.e., the non-tail portion) during a tail sealing process.
Common gluing, moistening and other systems known to those in the tail sealing art typically require some manipulation of the tail for correct alignment for adhesive application, proper winding or rewinding and the like. In most commercially available embodiments, the tail is laid flat and unwrinkled against the log with the tail being secured to the log at a position a short distance from the very end of the tail using an adhesive-based material. This tail sealing arrangement leaves a small length of the end of the tail unsecured (the so-called “tab”) to enable the end user to grasp, unseal and unwind the convolutely wound product.
The teal sealing process is typically used to aid in the downstream converting processes, such as to keep the roll from undesirably becoming unwound before it has been property packaged. As a consequence, however, the consumer is tasked with breaking the bond in order to use the rolled web product. Many known systems have been found deficient when attempting to obtain an amount of adhesion or type of adhesive that is sufficient for downstream manufacturing processes, yet not bonding the tail to the log in a fashion that is deemed inconvenient or frustrating from a consumer perspective. If the bond strength is too low or the amount of adhesive used is not sufficient, processing difficulty may be experienced. If the bond strength is too high, too much adhesive is utilized, or the seal is inconveniently placed relevant to the tab, a consumer interacting with the wound roll may experience difficulty when attempting to separate the tail from the wound roll from the body. For example, if the strength of the bond is stronger than the web substrate, the web material may undesirably tear when a consumer attempts to separate the tail from the body. In such instances, the torn portions of the roll may be considered unusable and wasted, resulting in consumer dissatisfaction or frustration.
Moreover, known tail sealing systems often utilize adhesives that dry relatively slowly. It is desirable, however, that tail seal adhesive dry quickly so that the bond is properly set in advance of downstream converting operations (e.g., wrapping, bundling, and other manipulation). A log typically is processed through such processes in about 5-10 minutes. Yet, known systems utilize adhesives with drying times of more than an hour, which fully dry long after the product is cycled through the manufacturing processes. In some cases, the bond strength even continues to increase even after the wound roll has been discharged from the manufacturing process and has been packaged.
Additionally, using conventional adhesive-based tail sealing techniques, once the adhesive is applied to the wound roll and the bond is formed through evaporation, the bond strength of the adhesive cannot be reduced. Therefore, although the tail does not necessarily need to be adhered to the body with relatively high bond strength subsequent to the manufacturing process, conventional bonding techniques do not allow for selective reversibility of the bond strength.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide for a tail sealing system that addresses one or more of these issues. Indeed, it would be advantageous to provide for a tail sealing method that provides sufficient bonding for downstream converting operations while reducing negative end user feedback during interactions with the roll. It would be also advantageous to provide a tail seal having a bond strength that can be selectively increased and/or decreased. Specifically, it would be desirable to provide a tail seal with a bond strength that can be increased for manufacturing processes and then subsequently decreased in order to allow a consumer to more easily separate the tail from the body of the wound roll.